Sparkman and Stephens aficionado Tapio Lehtinen believes his Gaia 36 is the perfect vessel for the rigours of the Golden Globe Race, despite being the oldest yacht in the fleet having been built in 1965.
Lehtinen completed the 2018 edition, the first ‘re-running’ of the famous solo non stop race, in 5th place in the same boat, after being hampered by ineffective antifouling that resulted in massive underwater growth.
However, a bigger refit than anticipated meant Lehtinen was not able to fully realise his vision for the boat last time. He bought her in 2017 in Italy, but it was only after sailing home to Finland that significant delamination was discovered in the deck.
Eventually the entire deck and coachroof was sliced off and used as a male mould for its replacement. At the same time, the hull was stripped right back to a shell, with all furniture and bulkheads removed.
Even the gelcoat and top 1mm of the hull laminate was ground away and then relaminated with Kevlar to improve impact resistance against collision with floating objects.
“The boat is now how I would have liked it to be four years ago,” he told me in Les Sables d’Olonne the day before the start, “but then we just didn’t have the time to get to this standard.”
The Gaia design dates from 1961 and Asteria is the second boat of a total of 15 built. She has very similar lines to the Swan 36 which was first launched just two years later, although Asteria’s rudder is mounted on the trailing edge of the keel, rather than the Swan’s more modern fin and skeg profile.
“It’s the only boat in the GGR that was originally designed for racing,” Lehtinen added, “and I wouldn’t want to race with a cruising boat.” Nevertheless Asteria is much modified compared to her original specification.
As well as three watertight compartments and foam buoyancy in the bow, there’s a pair of watertight bulkheads aft, which are not required for the race, but make sense for the rigours of the course.
The first is just ahead of the rudder tube, while the second is a couple of feet further forward. All through-hull fittings are positi
